harry hagopian

The managing editor of Foreign Affairs magazine recently went to Damascus, where he interviewed President Bashar al-Assad. Ekklesia associate and regional expert Dr Harry Hagopian assesses where the president stands in the tragic and bloody mess that exists in Syria at the moment, where ordinary people are caught between competing barbarisms.

On the centenary of the beginning of the terrible Armenian genocide in 1915, can Turkey show the good will and good faith needed to repair and repopulate the destroyed Armenian nest, asks Ekklesia associate and regional expert Dr Harry Hagopian. Can it act so that its hitherto legal denial of a human truth does not breed further oppression, but challenges it instead?

This year Prince Charles visited the Armenian Orthodox, Chaldean Catholic, Coptic Orthodox and Syrian Orthodox Churches during the course of 2014. In the case of the Syriac Church, he visited them twice in one short year. Ekklesia associate and Middle East analyst Dr Harry Hagopian assesses the significance of these acts of concern and solidarity.

Our associate Dr Harry Hagopian, an expert commentator and ecumenical consultant on the Middle East and North Africa, has been particularly busy during Advent, recording several broadcasts before a stay in a Monastery.

Pope Francis has undertaken a fourth papal visit to Turkey amid much ignorance and misunderstanding. Ekklesia associate and regional expert Dr Harry Hagopian says that the present leader of the worldwide Catholic Church came to Ankara and Istanbul with three overarching objectives. He looks at what those are and why they are important politically and religiously.

Is the Jerusalem that we all claim to love not bigger than ego-politics, self-interest or self-aggrandisement, asks Ekklesia associate and regional expert Dr Harry Hagopian, surveying the fate of the city. We are all held hostage to ego-politics that negate win-win solutions. Yet, such win-win solutions alone can resolve this conflict. Walls or fences cannot protect a whole people. Nor can military might, religious radicalism and extremism. What is critical is the elusive good will that facilitates peace.

A reminder that Ekklesia associate, international lawyer and church consultant Dr Harry Hagopian features in a regular Premier Christian Radio broadcast on the Thursday of the last week of every month.